ardea pickup.........THING!

[chugga boom]

more........... the welding in isnt finished yet, i need to measure up and make sure its all square 1st before finally welding into position, the n/s of the car is pretty straight this side had twisted anti clockwise and had been welded up whilst bent, i've honestly spent approx 10hrs cutting all the layers of rubbish off that had been welded on over the yrs, however atleast i know it'll be strong when finished 

[chugga boom]

More progress made, spent the weekend measuring up and making sure the car is square and that the mountings are going to be in the correct place (too late once its welded!!) finished off the o/s mount and happy that its as good as i'm going to get (within 3 mm side to side) a new car off the production line is allowed up to 8mm of set back side to side an old car up to 15mm is acceptable according to most body shops and alignment specialists, so end result concidering the smack its had is pretty good, i've just finished welding the axle mount to the frame and will be removing to ark weld it up solid tomorrow then refit and weld the frame to the body tomorrow evening , so whats next   oh yes........THE OTHER SIDE!!! , also on the plus side i put the truck on 4 axle stands and made sure the chassis legs at the rear were level so that the front axle would be parallel to it, after making sure the rear end was dead level using an 8ft spirit level across it i checked the rest of the body too, suprisingly the rear sides that i made are level to the chassis, as are the seat mounts, the front inner wings and engine bay and most importantly the front axle!  

[chugga boom]

another busy afternoon, the frame has been welded up and boxed to give maximum strength, finally fitted and measured up to make sure that its all still square, finally its been welded in however i've left it open sided for the time being until the otherside is at the same stage, when it was tacked into place we whipped the axle off and checked that the mounts were level so that the axle didnt lean side to side, its more accurate with the axle off and to use a big spirit level accross the axle mounts rather than rely on the axle beam itself, whilst the axle was off i finished the welding and commenced to chopping the other side out, i'd already pre cut the frame parts out ready for fitting and i'm part way through 1st fitting now, hopefully by tomorrow the n/s will be at the same stage as the o/s ready for me to make new inner wing panels, on 1 of the photo's attatched you can see how many layers of steel have been put in over the years and why i'm chopping it all out

[chugga boom]

the n/s...

[fay66]

Work of art that Chugga

Brian
8227

[chugga boom]

thanks brian, took some figuring out how to make it strong  think i got there in the end though, anyway with beckie in work and a baby sitter to hand i decided to stay back late tonight and make new inner wings for inside the engine bay to tidy it up a little, i'm hoping that i can finish welding in the n/s axle mount tomorrow evening and get most of the inner wings boxed off by next weekend so i can crack on with the rear end and finish the tailgait and spare wheel cover, theres still an awefull  lot of work finishing off the front end and making it look tidy before prep work but i'm on fire to get it finished again 

[Dilambdaman]

I think you should stick it on a trailer and bring it to the AGM 

Robin

[HF_Dave]

Nice strong looking piece of welding. Well done Chugga. 

[chugga boom]

ha ha robin , it wont be attending the agm this yr and neither will i this , i've got a wedding to do with the augusta on the saturday afternoon and the night do to attend afterwards, sunday i think i'll need to recover from the saturday night and then i'll get back on the pickup late morning, welding is a little messy on the o/s as i'm trying to make the best of the mess someone else has made, n/s will be alot more "tidy" but it hasn't had the wallop that the o/s has had , when the inner wing panels are fitted none of the repairs will be seen  so aslong as its super strong underneath i'm not too worried if its not really tidy

[DavidLaver]

There's strong, and nobody's going to argue that this is Super-Strong...

Great to see the progress.

David

[chugga boom]

yes pretty sure it will be as strong or maybe even stronger than origional, another late night tonight , girlfriends friend came around to see her, just nipping to the unit luv anyway i've managed to refit the n/s axle support back in, re-measure , weld in and re-measure again, 1mm difference side to side from the front of the rear spring to the bottom of the sliding pillar  good enough for me hoping it will be back on its wheels with new inner wings by the end of the weekend ......fingers crossed

[chugga boom]

load more welding and fabricating this weekend, my aim is to have the trucks front finished tomorrow evening so that it can be turned around on tuesday evening to start on the rear end again. this weekend has been finishing off the engine bay sides and making new tops for it, welding up stress cracks, making new inner wing panels for under the wings and fitting, new chassis leg bottoms etc, pleased with the end result just got to finish the engine mountings for the second time 

[fay66]

looking Good

Brian

[rogerelias]

You are getting the hang of this welding lark now so will i soon, as the NEW mot tester has killed my HF, and brought my bodywork plan forward by 2 years    heres hoping his legs get better soon

[chugga boom]

Well ,josh is off to the cinema with owen and bex is in work so hmmm what could i do this evening........... WELDING! yes thats what i'll do, i'm finding it all very therapeutic except for all the burns , roger sorry to hear about the HF, i'm sure you'll sort it quickly, put the misses on a night shift somewhere.....works a treat , more wages for anti social hours and more free time for hobbies, win win really  still on target for turning the truck around tomorrow evening in preparation for this weekends welding! i'd like to say that i'm on the home straight but somehow doubt it , however i think this is the most ambitious project that i've taken on and can hand on heart say i'm totally enjoying it,